What to Expect from the New Mobile Friendly Google
In an incredibly rare turn of events, Google turned the Internet marketing world on its head on February 26, 2015 by actually telling marketers its planned changes for their search engine.
You see, Google is usually very quiet about the changes that they make to their algorithms because they do not want search engine optimisation specialists gaming their system. But this time they have shocked the world and flat out told marketers that a specific search engine algorithm change is coming into the picture.
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What changes do they speak of? The specific change that they announced is that on April 21, 2015, the mobile search results pages will have a major impact based on the responsiveness or mobile friendliness of a particular website.
Check Out The Latest Huffington Post Article published on the 17th April 2015
What is Google looking to gain from this move? Ultimately, they want their mobile search users to have an easier time accessing websites on their devices. They want people to have a simple time finding and using mobile friendly websites when searching on their smart phones, tablets, etc.
And in a very short time – if it hasn’t happened already depending on when you are reading this – they will make this move and make this change to reflect their desire for mobile friendly websites in the search results.
Google has forewarned website owners about this change and even tell us that it is happening because it is incredibly important. And they certainly want website owners aware so that they can prepare for the upcoming algorithm change.
What Should Website Owners Expect to Happen during the Mobile Friendly Update?
Now that we understand more about the changes that Google plans to make to their algorithm update, it’s now time to take a closer look at some of the specific modifications that will take place.
Well we do not know the exact specifics, but we can tell you this much… Google says that this change will have a significant impact on search results. And it makes sense since more than 1.5 billion people use the mobile Internet every day. And out of all of the people using Internet throughout the world, roughly 80% of them own a smart phone.
What does this tell us? It tells us that the majority of the people using the Internet in today’s world are accessing it through a smart device. So it only makes sense to prioritize mobile friendly websites in the search engines.
In the recent past, and for the next few weeks, websites didn’t have to worry too much about mobile optimisation because they were still attaining high rankings in Google mobile search. Since that is all about to change, webmasters need to begin focusing on mobile optimization and preparing their website for mobile friendly readiness.
Why Business Owners Must Pay Attention to This Important Change
If you are a business owner focusing on search engine optimisation as a way to bring the majority of the traffic to your website, then this update is particularly important to you. You do not want to wake up on April 21, 2015, and discover that all of your search engine rankings have tanked. This will be devastating to your business.
For those looking for the ideal fix to prepare for this change, Google has actually made a recommendation. They recommend responsive website design. This method of web design is perfect for website owners because there’s no need to create an alternate mobile version of your already existing website.
Responsive site design allows website owners the ability to host a single website that automatically adjusts the size of the screen depending on the device that it is displayed upon. Once you have responsive site design in place, then your mobile website is ready to spring into action the moment that one of your visitors accesses it on a smart device like an iPhone, iPad or android phone as an example.
Changes Google Will Look for on All Websites
- font scale adjusting for easier reading on small screens
- easy to use touch elements – i.e. buttons
- ability for Google bot to crawl CSS and JavaScript
- avoiding irrelevant cross-links
- slow load times for mobile pages
Clearly, website owners have their work cut out for them. If you want your business to stay relevant in the search engines, begin implementing these mobile friendly changes immediately.
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